Money Guide Ireland

You can get €5 off your Tesco Online shopping with This Voucher
Latest Tesco Ireland Discount Vouchers here

See the latest information and up to date comparison of broandband prices in Ireland here.

Mobile phone call charges in Ireland  – what are the cheapest options?

Everyone has a mobile phone in Ireland – many people have more than one.  Mobile phones  have become a part of everyone’s daily life – some more than others.  Convenience has  a price and the cost of mobile phone calls can easily mount up each month.
For people on pre-Pay or Pay as You Go – it is so easy to keep getting €10 Euro top ups at the supermarket when you do the shopping – and you  lose track of exactly how much it is costing you. If you are on Bill Pay – with a certain number of free minutes and texts included – you get accustomed to using those “free” minutes and it is easy to use more than your free allowance and start running up a big bill.
You can use Callcosts.ie to find the cheapest mobile deal or provider for your usage. It is a powerful tool – but you need to tweak it a bit to take account of the amount of calls you make to each network .  (That’s only possible if you even realise how long you spend ringing each network).

One of the better  deals on mobile phone calls at the moment , in our opinion, is the O2 Clear Sim . For just €20 Euro a month  you can make unlimited calls to other O2 numbers and unlimited calls to Landline numbers in Ireland. (1890 and 1850 numbers not included) Free voicemail calls too. No 12 month contract either – you just give 30 days notice if you want to stop paying.

Obviously if all your friends and family are not on O2 or don’t have landlines – then this offer is probably no good to you.  I will be signing my wife up for this SIM today – I really don’t know why I didn’t notice this offer before now.
All the kids have O2 mobiles – and she is always calling them because they never have any credit.  I always forget to switch my phone on – so  my wife always calls the home landline from her O2 mobile. For basic calls (not texting or data) – this seems a great deal. If I wanted to call my wife’s mobile from the landline it can cost about 20c a minute . With this O2 Clear Sim I will just make a 2 second  call and get her to call me back from the O2 mobile (for free).  The call charges to other networks are 25c a minute at all times – which is almost 100% better than the 49c a minute  rate under the O2 Experience Pre-Pay.
There is also another option if you don’t call landlines – for €20 Euro a month you can get unlimited free calls and texts to other O2 mobiles.

Find Out more about O2 Clear here on the O2 Ireland Web Site

Car Hire is probably not a regular purchase for most people – maybe 2 or 3 times a year for holidays or when the main car is out of action.
Most visitors coming to Ireland arrive at Dublin Airport – so we did a quick comparison of prices for 1 week’s car hire at Dublin Airport in July 2009. The car we booked was a manual Ford Focus – these are the prices we were quoted online from various car hire companies. (Quotes obtained May 21st 2009 for 7 days July 21st to Jul 28th)

The cheapest price quoted for the seven days was from Auto Europe at £164.70 GBP (approx 186 Euro)

Easycar at €217 euro was the next lowest price
Holiday Autos £219 GBP = approx €248 euro
Avis £249 GBP  (approx €281 euro)
Europcar €290 Euro
Hertz €297 euro post pay  or €268 euro if you  pre pay
National 301 euro
Arguscarhire.ie  381 Euro (Ford Fiesta )

Of course these prices may well differ when you try and book – but it is a useful guide to the amount you can save by shopping around.  When we did this quick comparison for Dublin car hire – the difference between the cheapest and the most expensive car hire was almost €200 Euro for a week . (more than 100% dearer).
Booking car hire online before you travel is typically cheaper than just turning up at the airport. Also – you have a much better chance of getting the type of car you want when you book in advance online.

Whilst all other lenders are dropping mortgage rates (well those under the Irish Government Guarantee) – one lender in Ireland has just put rates up. Even though we have just had another ECB rate drop to 1% – Halifax has increased rates on all it’s variable and fixed rate mortgages for new borrowers by around 0.8% .
They did get some bad media coverage in the UK because after being given millions of UK taxpayers money they were giving lower rates on mortgages in Ireland than back in the UK. This must be a factor in the recent increases.
Halifax have been one of the lenders with the  lowest mortgage rates in Ireland – but not any more. See our Mortgage Best Buys Here. (More drops expected soon by some lenders)

There has been a sudden increase in property owners offering “Rent to Buy” schemes all over Ireland.

Is this just a marketing ploy to rent houses that property owners can’t sell or is it a viable option for first time buyers?

We’re seeing more of these rent to buy offers because there’s a growing backlog of unsold homes and prices are stagnant or falling in most parts of the country. That has left some owners – particularly investors and developers – with a problem. So now they’re trying to rent them.

Sellers can probably benefit from rent-to-buy agreements more than buyers. Not only can the seller lock in a price before property values plunge further, but they also collect market-rate rent until the closing.
It is not unheard of for developers and agents to use a purchase option to justify higher rents and lock you into a purchase price that’s higher than those of  comparable houses.

The many schemes that go under the banner of rent-to-buy vary dramatically, and the small print can change from one company or developer to another.
Offering to credit part of each month’s rent toward the purchase price of the home is the key element of any “Rent to Buy” deal.
They also often require you to pay a deposit. It is non refundable, but it is usually also credited toward your deposit.

The date at which the agreement expires varies by contract but is typically between two and five years. At that point, the renter can choose to buy the home at the original listed price minus the equity he or she has built. If not, then the homeowner has the option to evict them and keep all payments.

Making a rent-to-buy agreement in an area where house values are still dropping can be risky. That’s because you’re negotiating the purchase price for a property now that you may not actually buy for more than a year. That could easily result in overbidding. The monthly rent should also be on par for the market. With rents declining, in many places, you could end up paying more than the market rent over the next few years.
If property values were increasing – Rent to Buy would look to be a good option – but would many owners be offering such schemes if property prices were going up? I doubt it.

Always obtain independent legal advice before entering into a Rent to Buy contract. Do not accept legal advice from the vendor the agent or the vendor’s solicitor.

Investec is a specialist bank founded in South Africa in 1974 It  has expanded through a combination of  organic growth and a series of  acquisitions in South Africa, the United Kingdom and other countries.
Investec came to Ireland in 2000 when they acquired Gandon Capital Markets. Investec Ireland now employs a team of over 100 specialists focusing on private banking, capital markets and investment banking for a domestic and international client base.
For the individual customer – Investec have a few options for savings accounts – the highest rate they offer currently (May 2009) is 4.5% on the 12 month fixed deposit account  with a minimum deposit of 20,000 euro. See how they fare in our Best Buys on 12 month Fixed rate deposits.

Deposits with Investec are covered by the UK FSA (Amounts up to £50k are guaranteed by the FSA – which is about 56k Euro)

Contact Details for Investec Ireland

Address :

The Harcourt Building
Harcourt Street
Dublin 2
Web http://www.investec.com/en_ie/#home.html

Tel: 353 1 421 0000
Fax: 353 1 421 0500

As was widely expected the European Central Bank (ECB)  cut interest rates today to an all time low of just  1 per cent, (from 1.25%) . The new rate comes into effect on May 13th – but how many mortgage lenders will pass this latest cut on to variable mortgages?
People on tracker mortgages will see  monthly mortgage repayments on a €200,000 tracker mortgage over 25 years fall €22 from   €776 to  €754.